episode_0256

“…Yes, yes. Then please send this to the Star Palace as well. Just say it’s personal items for Lord Ed… I mean, Lord Ethan to use.”

“Yes, understood! I’ll make sure to pack it well and send it~!”

“Yes, take care~.”

It had been about two hours since Ethan and I started shopping for travel items while wandering around the market.

Despite buying a variety of things, besides the snacks we were holding, Ethan and I were still walking around empty-handed.

The fact that Ethan and I were staying at the Star Palace made it unnecessary for us to carry heavy luggage around. The owner of the first cheese shop we visited quickly realized that Ethan was no ordinary noble and, after confirming where he was staying, offered to send the items directly to the Star Palace by the end of the day.

As it turned out, this side of the market was frequented by maids from the Yellow Palace or the Star Palace who came down to buy groceries.

It was impossible for the palace residents and noble servants to transport the food and necessities for the three hundred people staying there on their own, so a transportation carriage system had been established to move goods from the market to the palaces.

The shop owner kindly explained that the maids would come to the market, request various items to be sent to the palaces, and then return without having to carry anything themselves.

Adding our belongings to the carriage that carried supplies for three hundred people did not delay the transportation, so naturally, we took full advantage of the system. The fact that the cheese shop owner mentioned it first was probably because he knew that nobles staying at the palaces often used this method.

As a result, we should have been carrying baskets filled with supplies by now, but they were completely empty.

*Sigh… Sigh, sigh…*

*Hehehe, heh, hehe…*

Thanks to Sei, who had come out to help me, she was actually sleeping on my shoulder. Sally, who had followed Sei, was flying around her, watching her sleeping face with joy.

By the way, we hadn’t spent a single penny of the travel budget we had brought with us. In fact, I had expected this to some extent since I brought Ethan along.

“Ethan would never just stand by quietly while I spend money.”

As a test, I pretended to open my wallet at the cheese shop, but Ethan immediately stopped me and paid for the cheese himself. The same thing happened at the other shops we visited.

Even though I was pretending to be a normal noble lady, our status was that of a lord and his personal maid. For a lord to make his maid pay was a blow to his pride, so Ethan’s reaction was only natural.

With no need to exert effort or spend money, I leisurely enjoyed shopping at the market. If I saw something I needed, I would buy it and have it delivered to the Star Palace, and if there were snacks, I would buy one and share it with Ethan.

…As I continued like this, it felt more like a real date than preparing for a trip. After all, it was Ethan who had asked me out on this date.

“Lily, here, have some fruit skewers.”

“…Ah.”

Even now, leisurely feeding me fruit skewers from a street vendor, it was undeniably a delightful date.

“I made the right decision not to bring Agnes along. If she had seen this, she would have thrown a fit today and probably caused a scene for days to come.”

As I savored a sweet strawberry skewer like a piece of sugary candy, Ethan asked me about the remaining schedule for the day.

“I think we’ve almost bought everything we need. What’s left, Lily?”

“We’ve almost finished preparing the food supplies and camping equipment, so the only thing left is the ‘insect repellent perfume.’”

“Insect repellent perfume?”

“Yes. I heard that there are quite dangerous bugs in the Witch’s Forest, so it’s uncertain if Lala has our share of insect repellent perfume. We should prepare just in case.”

The main reason was that I disliked bugs. Thanks to my maid life, I had reached a level where I could kill creepy bugs with my bare hands, but they still gave me the creeps.

It was hot, humid, and I was sweating profusely, so I really didn’t want to deal with bugs on top of that. Seriously.

“Maybe we can find it at a general store or a magic tool shop. But these kinds of stores might not be on the main street but in a remote part of the village.”

Even though the village had two castles, it would still be quite difficult to find it immediately.

Back when I played ‘Luminor Academy,’ I hardly used this item, so I wasn’t sure if it was being sold in Hwangdo. During my player days, I thought I didn’t need it because I wouldn’t encounter bugs myself.

In the afternoon, while considering whether to ask around for a store selling insect repellent spray near Hwangdo, someone suddenly appeared in front of me and Ethan, blocking our path.

“I saw a somewhat strange sign on the way here, maybe it was a general store…”

“Excuse me, miss!”

“Eek?!”

“Ack?!”

I was momentarily startled by the sudden appearance of a girl who was only half the height of an adult, causing my body to lean back, but Ethan, who was quietly following behind me, caught me.

“Are you okay, Lily?”

“…Ah, yes. Thank you, Ed.”

Fortunately, there was no embarrassing sight of falling backward from my hips. Thanks to Ethan, who caught me faster than I fell.

Surprised by my scream, the girl who appeared in front of me cautiously extended her hand towards me along with an apology.

“I-I’m sorry for screaming. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“N-No, I’m fine…”

With a red hood flipped over her head, the girl cautiously stood up while brushing off her bottom.

She appeared to be around six or seven years old.

Of course, this was just an estimate, and there was a possibility that she was older. The world of ‘Luminor Academy’ was not like modern society, where food was abundant and there was no worry of starvation.

She might have looked younger due to not having proper nutrition during her growth spurt.

“You called me earlier, do you have something to say?”

“Um, well…”

“Did you lose your parents? Or did you get lost and can’t find your way back home?”

“Are you… are you an adventurer, miss?”

“……Yes?”

I gave a slightly dumbfounded response to the unexpected question from the girl, but I quickly regained my composure and nodded quietly.

“No, I’m not an adventurer.”

“T-Then…”

“I’m just an ordinary maid… not a noble… anyway, I’m not an adventurer or a noble, just an ordinary person.”

“….”

At the moment, I wasn’t a maid, so introducing myself as one felt subtle, and I doubted whether this child, who seemed to be a commoner, even knew about the existence of the profession of a maid.

But saying I was a noble seemed like it would unnecessarily raise suspicion, so I just introduced myself as an ordinary person.

…Although, a truly ordinary person probably wouldn’t introduce themselves like this.

“L-Lies….”

“Pardon?”

“An ordinary person wouldn’t be able to fight like that. Ah, you dodged that bad man’s knife in the alley earlier!”

“Uh, well….”

“I saw it all! The strange man was swinging a knife at unni, but oppa pushed his hand away and swiftly cut him down!”

“….”

It seemed she was a witness to the pickpocket (by profession: robber) incident that had happened in the back alley earlier.

I don’t recall it being particularly educational to show kids, but in this medieval fantasy world, maybe it’s normal? After all, in a bustling market town like this, it might be common for crimes involving killing people and wielding knives to happen one or two times a day.

“So, let’s say you’re a bit more skilled at dodging… no, a bit better at fighting as an ordinary person.”

“….”

“So, where are your mom and dad? If you’ve lost them, I can help you find them….”

“…They’re not here.”

It wasn’t like I was deliberately trying to be like that. Normally, in a market alley with a lot of people, it was normal for parents to come out with their children, so I just thought that way.

Of course, I don’t think this kid is abnormal, anyway.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way….”

“My mom and dad are lying down right now. Even if I asked them to come to the market with me, they probably wouldn’t come.”

“…I-I was surprised. When you said they weren’t here, I thought I made a mistake in what I said….”

“My mom and dad have been lying down for about a year now. They probably won’t be able to get up for a while.”

“….”

“I was joking. In reality, my mom and dad are buried in that direction.”

“T-That was a joke. D-Don’t make people upset….”

“That’s where the graves of my mom and dad are. In fact, it’s been about three years since they passed away.”

“….”

“….”

“…Was that really not a joke just now?”

“No. So, my mom and dad are not here.”

…In the end, the mistake I made at the beginning didn’t change in the end.

I should have just said they had passed away from the beginning. Why am I going around in circles and making self-deprecating jokes like this?

But I can’t get angry at the kid, and if I do, I’ll become a really mean person, so I barely suppressed my inner emotions.

“So, do you have any family living with you right now?”

“My grandmother. I live with my grandmother.”

“…Your grandmother has passed away, right?”

“No. She’s still alive. She made carrot potato soup for me yesterday morning. I asked her to leave out the carrots….”

…Luckily, it seemed the grandmother was not the target of the Tulara.

I somehow managed to find a way out and roughly understood the situation the girl was in, so I immediately changed the subject and turned the conversation towards finding her grandmother.

“So, should I help you find where your grandmother is?”

“Yes!”

“Great, when and where did you lose her? If you think back carefully….”

“Last night, at our house!”

“….Excuse me?”

“The night before last, a big, bad wolf suddenly appeared at our house and took my grandmother away!”

“….”

“What, was it really a red cloak?”